Russell or Rankin?

Raiders coach Tom Cable has a problem of excess on his hands. He admitted as much after Thursday’s 31-21 loss to the Seahawks in the final exhibition game before the Sept. 14 season opener against the Chargers.

Running back Louis Rankin continued to show promise with a 45-yard touchdown sprint. But, veteran Gary Russell showed up with two touchdown runs of his own.

So, assuming they will only keep one of the two, who will it be? Because, the Raiders aren’t likely to carry five running backs on the 53-man roster come cut day Saturday.

“That’s one place that you wish you could keep an extra guy if the roster would allow it,” Cable said when asked about the two backs. “It’s just going to be tough to do that because we’re very very talented at that position.”

Justin Fargas, Darren McFadden and Michael Bush are considered safe. Rankin has youth and speed on his side but Russell has a more diverse portfolio. He has Super Bowl-winning experience from last season. He can run the ball. He can block like a fullback. He has great receiving hands. He plays special teams.

And, he led the team in preseason rushing with 28 carries for 155 yards and three touchdowns. Rankin had 14 carries for 94 yards and two scores but had a superior per-yard average (6.7 to 5.5).

If this was a close call to begin with, the ice pack on Rankin’s injured knee after the game may have sealed it. As for the rest of the game …

** Rookie defensive end Matt Shaughnessy and defensive tackle Desmond Bryant looked like keepers. They had great burst and penetration.

** What are they going to do about kick returner? Justin Miller is a proven Pro Bowler but he has turf toe and has been terrible as a cornerback. Nick Miller has breakaway potential but disappears as a wide receiver in games.

** If they stick to the standard five cornerbacks, which two will they be forced to keep after Nnamdi Asomugha, Chris Johnson and Stanford Routt.

You don’t expect to have starter-caliber players at No. 4 and 5. But, Miller, John Bowie and Darrick Brown have been awful out there. One injury to a starter, and a struggling cornerback will start in nickel packages.

** If Chris Morris somehow gets named the starting center … wow. Cable sounded like he was in no mood to give Samson Satele the job everyone assumed was his all along — not even after Satele played all but the first series of the game (Morris drew a surprise start).

“We will look at that but Morris really didn’t do anything wrong for the very short time he was in there and Samson had couple of struggles but seemed to improve and that was the real key for me I wanted to see him get better coming out of this game,” Cable said.

Asked why Morris started, Cable said, “We felt like that is where it was at after last week. After playing that game and how it, he kind of took the challenge probably a little bit more than Samson did and really stepped it up.”

** Cable hoped to decide on a No. 3 quarterback between Charlie Frye and Bruce Gradkowski. No thanks to shoddy pass protection, it was impossible to tell a difference Saturday.

“I didn’t like the protection,” Cable said. “I thought all three of them were back there with short time to work and that’s tough when you’re playing that position. So we’ll have to relook at that.”

Even starter JaMarcus Russell got dropped on the first play of the game, no thanks to right tackle Cornell Green.

** Cable went ahead and named rookies Darrius Heyward-Bey and Louis Murphy as his starting wide receivers. Javon Walker had no chance after struggling to get open or get separation on his breaks Thursday.